the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture

Jerry Saltz names “Coming Together: Surviving Sandy” the best show of the year– with NO MENTION of the wave of artist evictions which made the show possible. Roberta Smith also gave the show a glowing review, because it celebrated community. We have been ripping our hair out at the office. More on this soon. [New York Magazine, New York Times]

Now’s a good moment to immerse the public in Russian performance art, what with Pussy Riot, Voina, and Petr Pavlensky (the balls-nailer) making headlines and being charged as criminals. In its current conference, the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture hopes to educate people about the full history and scope of the culture. “What’s frustrating for a lot of practitioners in Moscow is that they feel like they’re shouting into a vacuum,” founder Dasha Zhukova tells Artinfo, “because what gets reported on are the negative things rather than the steps that people are taking to develop culture and society.” [Artinfo]

Criticism makes the world better! Saturday Night Live finally pulled its head out of its ass and is taking steps to hire a black female performer. Let’s hope the jokes get a little less bro-y. [New York Times]

Net artists, here is a Secret Santa for you. Sign up now for GIF Wrapping to participate in a Secret Santa for GIFS for digital artists (gifts in boxes pictured above). Check out last year’s to see what you’re up against. [ANIMAL]

William Kentridge has thoughts about Nelson Mandela. That’s not exactly news, but we’re seizing the art hook since we haven’t mentioned anything about his death. Seems wrong. [TAN]

Expect to learn about a lot of great art from Baltimore in the year ahead. The Contemporary Museum just reopened and appointed Deanna Haggag as its new director; having been on the greater Baltimore tour with her last year, we know she’ll make a great ambassador. [Hyperallergic]

VICE covers the coke sales at Art Basel. As usual, it was successful. “Basel is awesome,” says a drug dealer. [VICE]